In a building equipment network system or a home network system, an apparatus intended to operate can be controlled through communication using an apparatus identification number such as a communication address assigned to each apparatus.
Upon installation or maintenance of such an apparatus, a user such as a worker is sometimes required to do certain operations such as making a work-target apparatus execute an intended operation or entering intended settings on the apparatus through operation via a portable terminal device while visually checking the apparatus.
For the above-mentioned works in the prior art, for example, a sticker or the like on which an apparatus identification number is printed is pre-attached to the casing surface of the apparatus. The user visually reads the apparatus identification number printed on the sticker or the like and cross-checks the number on an apparatus list that the portable terminal device has.
The above-mentioned method requires the user to visually check the apparatus identification number printed on the sticker or the like for each apparatus to work on, which is time-consuming and inefficient. Moreover, when the apparatus is installed on a ceiling or the like, it is difficult to visually check the apparatus identification number and the workload is increased. Therefore, if the portable terminal device or the like is capable of identifying the apparatus that the user intends to work on without causing the user any trouble such as visually reading the apparatus identification number, the workload can be reduced.
For example, Patent Literature 1 describes that each apparatus constituting a network sends its apparatus identification number to a portable terminal device through short-range wireless communication for improving the efficiency in operating and managing the network.